Hackers convicted for unreleased Xbox code theft

Four hackers have been convicted in the US having admitted to the theft of unreleased game code from Xbox Live.

The United States Department of Justice said the men stole up to $100m worth of software and IP from networks owned by Microsoft, Epic Games, Valve, Zombie Studios and, crucially one suspects, the US Army.

Pre-release versions of Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 and Gears of War 3 and an Apache helicopter simulator designed by zombie for the government were directly targeted.

The four men –Nathan Leroux (20), Sanadodeh Nesheiwat (28), David Pokora (22) and Austin Alcala (18), along with an unnamed Australian citizen – were charged with counts of "aggravated identity theft, unauthorized computer access, copyright infringement and wire fraud".

They will be sentenced in the new year.

The DOJ also claims to have seized $620k in cash and other proceeds associated with the theft.